Recapping the Semifinals of the 2026 Queen of the Ring Tournament

To say that this year's Queen of the Ring Tournament has been interesting would be an understatement. The Quarterfinals saw the field of 16 whittled own to the Final Four thanks to each match being a four-way. While the matches were amazing, a few of the results were not ideal. In the first Quarterfinal, Iyo Sky defeated Roxanne Perez, Lash Legend, and Giulia. I'm fine with that, even though many say Giulia should have won that bout. In the second Quarterfinal, Raquel Rodriguez defeated Bayley, Kiana James, and Jacy Jayne, and this was the only right answer. Bayley didn't need it, Kiana's still a bit away from being ready for elevation, and Jacy needs to be slow-burned (slight spoiler: she's not, WWE actually want to put Jacy in World Title contention).

Here's where it goes wrong. The third Quarterfinal: Liv Morgan wins against Chelsea Green, Alexa Bliss, and Becky Lynch. Liv Morgan. Women's World Champion Liv Morgan. A reigning Champion should not have been in this tournament, let alone advancing. Chelsea was the obvious right choice to win this Quarterfinal, but this won't hurt her. She'll be fine. She's my pick to win Women's MITB; she's the most logical choice for that. As for the fourth and final Quarterfinal, Charlotte Flair won that, defeating Sol Ruca, Lyra Valkyria, and Jade Cargill. Another big mistake. Lyra should have not only won the Quarterfinal, she should have won the whole thing. Charlotte didn't need to advance, but at least she's not a reigning champion in this thing.

So that's the Final Four. The most recent Women's Grand Slam Champion (Iyo Sky), a multiple time tag champ still looking for main roster singles gold (Raquel Rodriguez), the reigning--but not defending--Women's World Champion (Liv Morgan), and someone with more championships than the Green Bay Packers (Charlotte Flair). The Semifinals were spread out; the first Semifinal occurred on the previous week's Raw, while the second Semifinal occurred on the previous week's SmackDown.

As for the results:

The Iyo vs Raquel bout took place on Raw; Liv was not at ringside in Raquel's corner; she would later try to help Roxanne against Charlotte. This bout went as well as I expected; and I felt good about this match because it featured women who should have reached this point. The classic saw Iyo victorious and on her way to the Finals, which was the right move in this match. And I'm serious, Liv winning her Quarterfinal weeks prior had me paranoid, because that night featured Dominik Mysterio vs Oba Femi in a King of the Ring Semifinal. I actually feared that they would have Oba lose that match to put over Dom and Liv, and considering that Triple H sabotaged Oba by having him lose to Brock Lesnar in a rematch that should have never happened, I wouldn't have been surprised. Thankfully, Oba won.

And then there's the loaded Semifinal between Liv and Charlotte; basically the equivalent of Spurs vs Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. Right before the match, Charlotte ended up confronted by Jade Cargill and her Baddies 2.0 squad; Jade was bitter over losing her Quarterfinal due to Tiffany Stratton's interference, but Charlotte told the trio off and was on her way. As expected, the group attacked Charlotte, triggering her previously injured knee moments before her match. I literally went, "Oh, no. They really are going to have Liv advance, aren't they?"

Charlotte fought anyway, brashly ignoring GM Nick Aldis' trepidations over Charlotte basically competing on one good leg. No surprise, Liv and Charlotte showed out, because they always do. But here's the thing. This attack really turned the match into a no-win situation. Either Liv wins, and and a reigning champion enters the Finals, or Charlotte wins, making Liv look even weaker as a champion--no defenses and she loses to a Charlotte working on one good leg. Seriously, only WWE could fuck up something so simple. Liv, of course, wins. As a result:

So this is the Finals of the Queen of the Ring tournament: Liv Morgan vs Iyo Sky. Or is it? Here's a development I read right before I wrote this: Liv's hurt. A bad ankle after a house show four-way match. See what they did? They overworked Liv, and not in a good way, because she still hasn't defended the very title she won two months ago!! Now, the talk is that it may be a work, after all, the "X" sign wasn't used by referee Jessika Carr, but still, something is up. And this is bad, because with this, BOTH Women's Champions are currently injured! And again, it's Triple H's fault for putting Liv in that tournament. Maxxine Dupri. Nattie. Ivy Nile. Jordynne Grace. ANY of them would have been viable replacements!

So we have one Raw (in London this week, so it's Monday Afternoon Raw for the third time this month) and one SmackDown left until Night of Champions takes place on Saturday. We will see what develops and if Liv is good to go, but if she isn't, they better have one hell of a Plan B.